Butterflies
by Nightmares.When.I'm.Awake
Summary: Oneshot about Percy and Annabeth right before their very first date together. Butterflies in their stomachs, products in their hair, and a glitter in their eyes. Part 1 in a Prequel series to Going Under. R


**First oneshot ever, you guys. I've never done one of these before so bear with me. It's supposed to go with my other story, ****Going Under****, it's about Percy and Annabeth before their big break up. So if you haven't read that (Shameless advertising) please do, and review.**

**I'll actually be updating ****Going Under**** tomorrow, so watch out for that, and I'll try to upload this ridiculously crappy Maximum Ride oneshot. I just want to know if I'm writing Max's point of view okay. I think I can handle Fang…**

**Another thing: I'm thinking about doing this fanfiction about incest between Max and Fang. A lot of stuff is going to happen, I've already got the plot, but if you go on my profile you can vote on the poll what you think.**

**R&R! Please. *Gets on floor and rolls over, producing a plate of deliciously mouthwatering, hot, melt in your mouth goodness called chocolate chip cookies* You can have to cookies if you do!**

Percy POV

I was nervous. My palms were sweating and I had been downing bottle after bottle of water for the past 2 hours. Rachel was over, her hair was tied up in this really tangled mess thing and she and my mom were attacking my head with hair gel and my face with shaving cream, though I didn't exactly have anything to shave.

I was going on a date with this amazing girl. I've known her forever, since I was 12 or 13. Her mom knows my dad, they kinda hated each other, which made it more fun to hang out, and we met because our parents were both trying to be show offs. I think Athena won the competition of show off-yness because Annabeth Chase is a goddess.

She's smart, almost annoyingly so, but it's endearing, it makes you want to spend more time around her to see if you'll ever know something she doesn't, and she's beautiful. You wouldn't notice it right away, she may seem just average if you saw her in the mall with her friends, blonde hair tied up out of her face, California girl tan, and calculating, but startling grey eyes. You'd think was stuck up too, full of herself and sure she was so much better at everything than you are. She may be right, but you wouldn't know because she wouldn't be pretty enough, at least, that's what you would tell your friends. In reality, you'd be intimidated by her confidence. You'd be scared of rejection.

Which is why I was basically shaking my dress shoes.

I was taking her to my father's restaurant, Olympus, run by him and my uncle, and we had get all dressed up. She never wears make up, and it's not like she has to, but I was looking forward to seeing her all dressed up and primped.

"You need to bring a jacket, you're shaking." My mom said. She was still running a comb through my gelled back hair. I felt like some kind of mobster, even though I'm not Italian and I'm sure mobsters don't get nervous about dates. Especially if they've known this girl for 4 years.

"He's nervous." Rachel giggled. She was searching through my closet, all the way in the back where I hid all my blazers and ties and stuff. Her face was red from exertion, she had to dig through a lot of clothes in order to find something presentable.

"I am not." I scoffed, but my voice shook, and she giggled some more.

"I cannot wait to tell Nico." I rolled my eyes. Nico would never let me hear the end of it if she told him I was nervous for a date with Annabeth. Of all people. It's not like she's a cheerleader, or class president, or even someone just incredibly hot. She's just Annabeth.

No matter how many times to told myself that, I still had this huge lump in my throat.

"Have you found it yet, Rache?" my mom called.

"I've got three. There's a white, navy blue, and a red." She replied.

"Um, how about you get the navy blue t-shirt and we'll do the white blazer. No tie. It's just Annabeth."

See, it's just Annabeth. Even my mother is aware of this fact.

"Are we going jeans or slacks?"

"Jeans."

Once my mother was finished, she shaved my nonexistent facial hair, slapped on some after shave, and threw the clothes she and Rachel had picked out for me at my face.

"Get dressed." They commanded.

15 minutes later, I was all dressed up, drowning in cologne and with perfectly bright white teeth and still nervously shaking. What if she found something to criticize. Maybe I should've worn a bow tie.

I lied to my mom and Rachel. After threatening them about calling Nico, I got in my car, telling them I wasn't nervous, that I was ready, that everything was fine. In reality I was having a panic attack, I felt like a tool, I probably looked more like a boob, may hands were shaking, pals were sweaty, I couldn't stop tapping my foot (Which caused for some driving complications), and I was scared to listen to music for fear of Annabeth getting in the car and being annoyed before we even started our date.

When I pulled up to her door, my heart faltered a little. Not in the "Oh, I'm so in love" way but in the "Holy shit, I hope her dad doesn't try to shoot me or something" way. Or maybe even "I hope she doesn't spit in my face and dump a bucked of frogs on top of my head, and _accidentally_ spill smoothie on my crotch".

Annabeth POV

I could imagine him sitting in his bathroom with his mother clucking like a mother hen at him, telling him what to wear and making him shave, even though he barely had any peach fuzz. I would have to tell Nico if he showed up at my house nervous, I knew he'd never let Percy live it down, and though I would never tell him, it's quite funny when Nico's taking the piss out of him. Hilarious even. Percy gets all flustered and red faced and he just looks like an embarrassed child.

My mother had warned me about how ridiculous this date was going to be. She told me he was probably a sexist pig when it came to women, much like his father, and that I shouldn't get too attached. I'd nodded like I understood and told her that I wasn't even looking forward to it when in fact, I actually had some little butterflies in my stomach. What if I wore the wrong thing?

I'm not really one to get asked out on dates. I'm usually the one girl who goes to school dances to snap shots for the newspaper or her blog, or even record parties to put on line and dissect with a bunch of other socially awkward kids around the world. Yeah, that's what I do. Percy was the one to be in the thick of things. While I am confident, and I do know how to read people much better than him, he spends more time among them. Talking and interacting whereas I just analyzed. He was the one to be recorded at parties, and he was the one everyone asked to buy booze, he was Mr. Popular. And that in itself was enough to worry me. He was probably used to girls primping and waiting for him, he was probably used to girls just spending dates rubbing his crotch and batting their eyelashes at him. Two things I never have and never will do.

My friend Katie had come over to help me get ready. She was laughing at me and all my inexperienced glory, how I was 15 and had never been on a proper date. Percy had just gotten his license and a car and was even driving us to one of those really fancy restaurants in Manhattan. His dad and uncle ran the place and he always got free meals when he came.

"I can't believe you're actually going on a date with Percy Jackson." Katie said dreamily. I rolled my eyes at her through the mirror. She was using flat irons to straighten my hair, because she said I looked older this way.

"You make it sound like I'm ugly or something." I muttered.

"I wasn't saying that, idiot. I'm just saying he usually focuses his time on outdoing you in sports and stuff and following sluts around. I just never thought he was crushing on you." She shrugged. I blinked at her for a second before staring down at my hands.

"Will you paint my nails?" I asked quietly. I hated talking about how nonexistent my love life was. It made me feel inadequate and I hated it.

"As soon as we pick out your dress, yeah."

"Thanks." She finished my hair 15 minutes later and we ran around my closet in a frenzy trying to pick on outfit.

I wear nice clothes, I'll admit. I like to look nice, to make up for my overbearing personality a little. My dad's a professor, so I've always got a little money in my pockets.

In the end, we had three dresses up in the final running for what to wear. There was a black long-sleeved dress from Forever 21, a simple blue sundress from Charlotte Russe, and a black and red dress from Gilly Hicks **(Links in profile.)**

"I think you should go with blue." Katie said.

"I like black." I murmured. We looked at each other.

"Rock paper scissors?" she asked.

"Rock paper scissors." I agreed.

In the end, I won, thank the gods, and I got to wear my cute little dress. It looked professional, with lace sleeves and a nice waist line. It flared a little at the hips and ended in a tight mid-thigh length skirt. I felt like an adult in it, and the white pumps we had to go with it made me feel like some kind of Norwegian super model.

"You look good Annabeth." She breathed, as she swiped some mascara on my lashes. She also put on a light smatter of blush and some light eye shadow, with nude lip gloss. I felt like such a shallow person for being so focused on how I looked, especially for Percy Jackson, who really shouldn't even matter that much to me.

"Thanks to you." I smiled, and she nodded seriously in agreement.

"You would've showed up in skinny jeans and a cardigan." She shuddered slightly at the thought, and I laughed.

"Probably."

Katie hugged me tight, smiling and whispering reassuring things in my ear, she knew I was nervous, how could I not be, and she also knew that I didn't want to show it.

There was a knock at the door, and my heart fluttered a little. Not like "Oh gosh, I've been crushing on him since I was 12" but more like "Oh god I hope I don't scare him off."

I shuffled down the stairs, my heels clicking and my stomach about to fall out of my butt, like the protagonist in Mean Girls, and tried to plaster a smile on my face. I was thinking about whether or not I was wearing too much make up and if I looked dressed for a swanky restaurant or a club or a job interview. I was thinking about whether or not he liked flavored lipgloss, and if he was even going to kiss me on the lips, kiss me at all.

In short, I was a freaking puddle of nothing but nerves and I hated it.

But, as I grabbed my leather jacket off the hook, and swung the door open, I knew I was in for a really good time.


End file.
